Having completed my MSc in Economics in my native India, I would now very much like the opportunity to do so in London, to enrich my personal and professional development. I am especially interested in doing research in public policy, especially economic policy since I look forward to working with international development organizations like the World Bank who are devoted to the development of backward regions of my country.
I excelled in graduate school and finished in the top 5% of our class. I performed particularly well in Mathematical Economics, Econometrics, and my course in Statistics. Going to work for Citigroup Global Service Mumbai as a risk analyst soon after graduation helped to form my professional demeanor. Combining professional discipline with global practice from a corporate center in the Modeling Department of Citicorp’s Division of Risk Analytics, where I analyzed and validated scores of various portfolios based on models developed for the North American credit card market. I have always been a quick learner and an active contributor to our model management team. I streamlined the entire process of validation of credit card models by assigning scores to assess the credit worthiness of potential consumers as well as scaling down our losses from delinquent customers.
Gradually, our team has become increasingly creative and able to utilise more intricate models in overdrafts and personal loan products for Brazilian clients and we have received important accolades from both our clients and manager for our ability to identify and create suitable parameters for behavioral models. Since January 2009, I have been working as a Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Policy and Public Finance of the Asian Development Research Institute at Patna where I have been especially dedicated to questions of public expenditure monitoring and evaluation. I prepared a detailed report comparing methods devised in various developing and developed economies for monitoring and helping to plug the leakage of public funds. I focused on those strategies adopted by the Government of India and was able to identify striking gaps in public expenditure evaluation, as well as recommending solutions for the improvement of evaluation and monitoring of public expenditures.
I can fluently speak and write Hindi and as well as English and I am convinced that this will be important to my professional future since I want very much to assist with the development of India. I have had the privilege of completing an internship with one NGO already, Vikas Bharti in Jharkhand, at the age of eighteen before beginning my university studies. As an intern I assisted in preparing a project allocated by the State government to conduct a survey in the rural areas of Jharkhand and evaluate the learning environment, to assess the impact of government schools on children in rural areas. We compiled a report on the findings of the survey and made important suggestions for more effective policies for enhancing the quality of learning. Thus, this project helped me to develop profound insight early on as to the critical question of how to design and formulate policies that work at the grass roots level.
I want very much to do my master's in public and economic policy at ____ University because I have been passionately engaged with the field of public policy for several years and I have 18 months of professional experience in the corporate world working with the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) in the Indian city of capital Patna of Bihar. My central long-term goal is to one day work for the World Bank on behalf of development in India; and I hope to publish as well in competitive advantages for underdeveloped regions and institutions. India is a large a populous country that I know very well and hope to write about in the literature on economics. I majored in Economics at St. Xavier’s Mumbai and pursued my postgraduate in Economics from the Madras School of Economics, one of a handful of Indian centres of excellence in post graduate teaching and research in Economics.
I have deicide to pursue a master's in public and economic policy from the world’s finest institute, the London School of Economics and Political Science which would not only give me a degree but also a fresh style of learning with international standards, innovative self-development skills. With my passion and exposure to the field of public and economic policy right since the age of 18 coupled with desired educational qualification and relevant work experience I could leverage my work experience and educational qualification and make meaningful contribution in the classroom teaching and add to the diversity of the course and bring on table the enriching experience, takeaways and challenges of the projects executed and implemented in one of the most backward States of a developing country like India.
My first summer internship at the age of eighteen was with an NGO, the Vikas Bharti, of my native town, Ranchi which is the capital city of Jharkhand. We worked primarily with literacy programmes for underprivileged people from less developed, more rural states. As an intern, I assisted with a survey in the rural areas of Jharkhand evaluating learning environments. Most of what I have learned comes from the stimulating and innovative coursework for my master's degree in India and I feel well prepared to begin rigorous, advanced coursework in your program so that I might continue to develop increasingly comprehensive understanding of the economics of political structures.
As an active member of the social service league, I have vast experience motivating students to put in genuine efforts in their struggle to help India’s downtrodden classes of people. I also participated in extra-curricular activities and was a member of the organising committee for the collage fest ‘Malhar, which assisted me with the development of leadership skills as well as becoming a valuable team player. The ability to organise this festival from scratch and execute its successful performance was one of the biggest achievements of our team. And my application has educational merit as far as I have excellent academic performance, graduating in 2005 among the top 10% of economics majors.
My graduate school was in Chennai, and it is one of the few schools in India where teaching and research in Economics reach up to the highest international standards. Throughout the course of my studies, I received especially solid preparation in the areas of Financial and International Economics, as well as Urban Economics and Game Theory. I did paper presentations and term papers on diverse projects including Consumer Behaviour, and the availability of home loans as well as subsidies from the Central Government. I wrote about sugar futures on India’s Commodity Market’ using an error correction model was used to find co-integrations between futures and the cash market. We found results over the long term in Granger's causalities, yet we also found price discovery benefits for sugar futures contracts in risk management. I have especially enjoyed using econometric concepts and applying quantitative tools for representations of economic phenomena.
My academic focus is centered on the social sector’. I especially enjoyed analyzing Bihar’s time series data on the social sector used by the government to assimilate its performance and chart future course of action. I further prepared an in-depth report on th specific grants demanded by Bihar that were approved or rejected by the Thirteenth Finance Commission Report prepared by the Government of India. I have participated in numerous conferences in the areas of financial sector reforms, urban poverty, and urbanisation in Bihar. I was an active participant in the national convention on union budget in New Delhi and assisted with the preparation of a People’s Charter of Demands on the Union Budget 2010-11. Most currently, I have been working in ADRI’s Ranchi unit in Jharkhand helping to initiate an Economic Survey of the Jharkhand Government. I have been actively involved with the development committee of the Jharkhand Government to foster growth in sectors that lag in development. I have managed a project on combating ‘Girl Trafficking in Jharkhand’ and advised a global workshop consisting of eminent people from NABARD, UNODC, CII and ATSEC, in the defense and implementation of our overall strategies for combating trafficking through public- private partnerships. Only with these kinds of credentials would I have asked for admission to your distinguished program.
MSc Personal Purpose, Public and Economic Policy